


Elseworlds: Redone

by The_White_Wolf



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DCU, Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Laurel Lance Lives, Older More Expierenced Ted Grant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:09:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23660596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_White_Wolf/pseuds/The_White_Wolf
Summary: A different way that the Elseworlds crossover could have gone.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Patty Spivot, Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen
Comments: 22
Kudos: 31





	1. Life Swap

**Author's Note:**

  * For [okoriwadsworth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/okoriwadsworth/gifts).



> A special thanks to my good friend, Okoriwadsworth, for both encouraging me to do this rewrite, as well as helping me ideas and bouncing ideas off of each other.
> 
> Also, this is an Alternate Universe to Canon so some things are different from canon, such as some characters being alive or around at this point in time.

He felt a pleasant weight on his shoulder and the soft snores of Patty. He let out a contented sigh and relished in the pleasant warmth of the sun coming through their window. It was perfect tranquility, he could hear the pigeons outside cooing, that is until he felt an extra weight on the bottom of the bed, that slowly made its way up the bed between him and patty.

Patty moved further to her side of the bed as if this was a natural occurrence. They didn't own a dog, and the body between him and Patty was a lot larger than a cat. He opened one eye, to see a young girl with green eyes and dirty blonde hair.

"Morning Daddy!" Olivia said softly.

Olivia? Barry wondered. It certainly sounded like Oliver and Laurel's child. He smiled at the little girl, despite how uncomfortable and scared he was, and leaned over to lower the duvet from the woman's face, to reveal Laurel Lance.

Barry ran a hand through his hair, and his eyes were wide."Oh no! He's going to kill me!" Barry said under his breath. Did he screw up the timeline again? Create some sort of reality where he became Oliver?

"What's wrong Daddy?" Oliver and Laurel's daughter asked him, as she handed him her stuffed small white polar bear. "Do you want to hold Snowy? Mommy said that you couldn't borrow him when you went away before?"

Barry smiled awkwardly. Seeing Oliver's domestic life was both sad and sweet. He wasn't sure how to react to his friend's daughter telling him something that neither Laurel or Oliver would ever divulge to anyone outside of perhaps, Thea and Sara. "I'll go make breakfast, you wake up Mommy."

After making Oliver's family bacon and eggs, and hearing Laurel getting her daughter ready for the day, he placed breakfast on the table and started playing with his food. He was way too confused, and quite frankly scared of what Oliver was going to do with him. What made it all worse was that he kept noticing Laurel eyeing him slightly. The way she was looking at him as if he had a third head, made him feel uneasy. "Where's Oli… Barry?"

Laurel looked up with a raised brow, "Probably with his wife, or heading to work or STAR Labs?"

He jumped up from his seat when there was a knock at the door. He stumbled forwards. He didn't have his speed. What was he going to do?

Laurel cupped his jaw and gave him a small kiss, assuring him that it was only the parent of one of Olivia's classmates picking her up, so that presumably Laurel could head into work, and he could head to the SCPD.

After Olivia left, Laurel closed the door, looking at him. "What's going on? You've been acting jumpy." His face softened as she cupped his jaw, making him feel very uncomfortable at the show of intimacy. "Nightmares again? I didn't want to mention it in front of Liv."

Oliver had nightmares?

And apparently bad enough that Laurel mentioned it as her first assumption. Though, considering the hell that he had heard Oliver had endured. And not just his time on Lian Yu, but also since he was the Green Arrow.

Lost people he loved or admired to murder. Forced to kill people. Almost watching both his sister and Laurel die.

"Ollie?" Laurel said his name to get his attention. The look she gave him made him feel worse, she was giving him a softer look than he was used to, not to say that Laurel wasn't kind when they interacted or when she trained him how to actually throw a punch. It was more intimate.

He nodded quickly, "Uhh, right. Yeah, I woke up to one, or one that can quickly devolve into one..." He then took several steps back from Laurel. "I really need to head to Oli- Barry at Star Labs… Maybe he can help me with my nightmares.

Laurel didn't say anything for a second, "That's a good idea. He's been through as much hell as you and I, if anyone outside of Speedy, the team or I can help. It's him. And you always said he was like a little brother you never had.

Barry chuckled slightly, causing Laurel to frown somewhat. It was at that moment that Laurel's phone chimed. She pulled it out, before showing him. "Curtis is telling me that our trap worked, and we know the location of some Los Halcones who want to step up now that Diaz is out."

Barry just nodded. "Right."

"It's our rostered day on Ollie." She then walked into their room and returned with Oliver's suit. "Suit up."

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Barry pulled out his quiver and shot an arrow towards the gangbangers that were loading their truck up with weapons. Instead of firing an incendiary arrow, he fired a grapple arrow and made his way down.

As he did, he watched as Laurel ran towards the cabin of the truck and slammed the driver's head into the steering wheel, rendering him immobile. "Thought you were going in loud?" She asked as she moved in to punch another.

"So did I," Barry said. He then disarmed the thugs as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Barry smiled as he watched Laurel use her canary cry to stop a few stragglers from running out of the exit.

Barry grinned from ear to ear. "This is so cool." His smile died, as he noticed someone sneak behind Laurel with a knife. "Canary!" He cried out, only for gold lightning to appear, saving both him and Laurel.

Oliver, dressed in Barry's suit, stood before him and Laurel. Laurel lowered her mask and combed her hair back with her fingers. "Nice, save."

Barry noticed Ollie's eye twitch. "I will always be there for you, Laurel."

Laurel gave him a friendly smile, "I appreciate it." She then moved to the changing rooms to change after giving Barry a peck on the cheek.

"We need to fix this now," Oliver said darkly, after watching his wife disappear further into the bunker. "We need to know who is responsible and how to reverse it."

Barry moved towards the salmon ladder and made his way up it, before stopping. "This is freaky Friday!" He then screwed up his face. "Or was it Quantum Leap because we didn't switch bodies?

"Barry!" Oliver growled. "We need you to stop and pay attention. Because of the world. My wife thinks that you are me, and I'm you. And I would really like to know why."

"Not just Laurel…" Barry admitted, taking a step back as Oliver took one closer.

"What?" His friend practically growled at him.

Barry scratched the back of his head, wishing to god that he had his powers so that he could leave this awkward conversation. "I kind of woke up in bed with Laurel and Olivia…"

His eyes narrowed. "My daughter thinks that you are her father? What did you do?"

Barry raised his hands. "I didn't do anything, I swear. But I promise that we are going to fix this." Barry then moved to the command center to look at their recent history and saw Oliver's face next to Patty's at their reception. "Did you wake up with Patty, as I did with Laurel?"

Oliver shook his head. "No. I woke up in the cortex. Some french iteration of the man that killed your mother."

"He's not… That's beside the point. "I will call Cisco and Caitlin to come over and we will see what is happening?"

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Cisco smirked too much for Oliver's likening. Oliver glowered at the man as Curtis paced back and forth. "Are you sure that Barry didn't do something hinky with the timeline? I mean for them to believe that Barry is Oliver, and Oliver is Barry is super weird. Kinda like it was ripped out of Quantum Leap."

Barry groaned, "I didn't screw up the timeline!" Caitlin, Cisco, and Curtis all said that they were referring to their Barry. Who really was Oliver. "I am the real Barry! I'm The Flash." He looked up at Oliver who was sitting next to him, who kept a forlorn stare at Laurel, who was sitting opposite to them watching silently.

Caitlin moved towards Barry and held up a device. "Do you mind?"

Barry gave her a friendly smile. "Not at all, Cait." As she moved the wand around him, Cisco did the same to Oliver, after a few minutes the devices beeped. Indicating a negative response.

Caitlin looked over at Laurel after testing Barry. "I don't detect any unusual readings, hypnosis, or any hallucinogens."

Cisco handed the device to Curtis, who quickly put the devices back on the normal shelves. "Tachyon readings are clear. We can be sure now, that there is no one disrupting the timeline."

Laurel rose to her feet, seemingly ignoring Oliver trying to get her attention. "I have known Ollie almost my entire life. I'm married to him, and we have a little girl together. I think I would know who he is. There has to be something going on."

Curtis returned, "Did you notice anything strange with Oliver when you woke this morning?"

"He was a bit jumpy," Laurel admitted.

Barry nodded. "See, that's because I'm not Oliver."

Caitlin gave a sad smile, "It could have been just Oliver adjusting back to life outside of the prison walls again."

"We are telling the truth." Oliver finally said. He then caught Laurel's eyes. "Laurel, we have endured so much together. Don't you believe me?" He asked, sounding more vulnerable than any of them had ever heard him before.

Curtis looked at the two men, "We will discuss this over there, you two stay here. Sit tight."

Barry and Oliver watched as Cisco, Caitlin, and Curtis moved towards the command center, while Laurel moved towards the gym, hitting the hard bags. "If the tech-whizzes won't help we need to find another way." Oliver stopped moving. "You need to get Laurel on board."

Barry covered his face with the palms of his hands. "Why me? She's your wife!?"

Oliver's jaw tightened in frustration. "I know, but she believes that you are her husband."

Barry scoffed. "And what exactly am I supposed to say to her? When I woke up this morning, I could barely utter two coherent words to either her or your daughter."

"Call her Pretty Bird."

Barry snorted, "Seriously?" Barry clapped, chuckling slightly. "You give us a bad time with names, and you decide to go all corny with Laurel? And by the way, I'm not calling her that, it's weird. And you could slow down time for her. Have a private conversation. All you have to do is hold Laurel in your hands, and let the love you two share feed your powers. I call it Flashtime"

"One," Oliver said with his eyes narrowing on Barry. "We will never discuss this again. And two, yes you will." He then raised another finger. "Three, I'm not doing that. And four, I'm not calling it Flashtime."

Barry sighed in resignation, as he moved towards Laurel who was hitting the bags with so much strength that he could hear the chains creak. "Hey."

Laurel threw several more punches. "So you are not Ollie? You're Barry?" She asked, taking a look over her shoulder at Oliver who was standing against the wall watching them.

Barry nodded. "I'm sure. I saved you from dying in Iron Heights due to returning from Flashpoint. Laurel, I saved you. You thanked me when you found out. You and Ollie stood beside me when the others didn't. Isn't it possible that someone could be doing something strange to reality? I was acting super weird this morning around you and Olivia… "

Laurel moved towards him and enveloped him into a hug. He only felt a nick, before everything went fuzzy. "What did you do?" Barry sluggishly moved his head sideways to see Oliver slump to the ground with Curtis standing nearby with a dart gun.

"I had to tranquilize you with your tranquilizer flechette. I need to keep you two under watch in case something else happens."

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Barry sluggishly rubbed his neck, where Laurel had dosed him. He looked over at Oliver who was just waking up. "Your wife can be just as sneaky and underhanded as you."

"She can be sneaky when she needs to." Oliver pulled himself up and looked around, he sighed. "And they have moved us into the cell that we use for metas." Oliver looked around the cramped space. It was already starting to smell quite ripe in their cell, as it was only meant to fit one person. "Barry, you need to back the pipes. Ruin the dampener."

Barry's eyes widened. "How? It's not like I can get out of these?" He said gesturing to the handcuffs.

"You need to apply pressure to your thumb, and dislocate it."

Barry tried to psych himself up to dislocate his thumb, but couldn't do the deed. "I can't Ollie."

Oliver took a calming deep breath, "You can. Your ligament has been stretched enough by doing it for almost over a decade. You just need to get on with it." Oliver watched as Barry took a couple of deep breaths, before popping his thumb out of place, escaping the handcuffs, and proceeded to back up the pipes.

Barry jumped giddily, "Now you are going to have to phase us out of here."

"Phase?" Oliver asked, looking over at his friend. "I can barely use your speed without missing my destination by several miles.

"You have to concentrate and vibrate so fast that your cells can pass through objects." After several seconds, Oliver managed to escape his cuffs, and with Barry holding onto him, managed to phase through the translucent wall of the cell.

Oliver sighed, as he realized he did it. He looked over at Barry, what now? If Laurel and the others don't believe that we are each other, then how do we prove it to everyone?

Barry moved towards him, "what if it's just out the earth that has been messed with? What if we brought another person back with us that can vouch for us?"

"Kara?" Oliver asked. He was ninety percent sure that Laurel, or rather, Dinah from Earth-Two, along with her new team of heroines were still dealing with an anti-meta human Argus, last he heard. "What about Sara and Ray?"

Barry shook his head, "We don't know what happened other than it appears that the entire world has been rewritten to make me Oliver Queen, and you Barry Allen. There is no telling if The Legends have been altered." It made more sense to go to Kara, as she is further away on Earth-Thirty-Eight.

"How do we get there? Cisco won't play ball and just let us head over to Kara. They think we need to be contained." In all honesty, if the roles were reversed, he probably would have done the same thing. Contain and manage the situation until they could solve it.

"We need the interdimensional extrapolators. I know Cisco gave you guys a couple."

Oliver nodded, scratching his beard. "Gave one to Dinah and her Birds of Prey from Earth-Two. But the others should be with the other tech equipment on the other side of the bunker. He and Barry silently made their way around the dark shadows of the bunker, avoiding the others in the center of the room.

Oliver moved towards the shelf that should be holding the devices only to find them missing. "Ollie?" Barry asked him, sounding concerned.

He looked around to see Laurel holding it in her hand. "You know I can't let you leave this bunker, let alone this earth, Ollie. We have to contain you two before we know what is happening for sure. It's a smart move."

Oliver slowly moved in front of Barry, watching her green eyes watch him intently. He then gently took her hand in his and remembered all the little and big moments of their shared love. He opened his eyes to see that time had slowed almost completely around the two of them.

"This isn't normal. I know that. But Laurel, look into my eyes, you know me better than anyone. Just as I know you in your bones, Pretty Bird." He watched as her eyes looked at him differently. "All I'm asking is for you to trust me. We will head to Kara for proof that we are who we say we are and we will come right back."

"And if she says you aren't?" She asked, looking at how everything was almost frozen in place, before placing her soft green eyes back onto his.

Oliver had to refrain from smiling proudly at her legal mind at work. "Then we will gladly sit tight until you guys can solve it." He then let go, and time returned back to normal. "I promise."

Laurel nodded, looking teary-eyed. She gently handed the small device to Oliver. "I trust you, Ollie." She then looked at Barry. "Stay safe." Laurel then stood back slightly to allow the two men to open up a wormhole to Earth-Thirty-Eight.

Oliver cupped Laurel's cheek, "I promise that we will fix this. And when we have, you, me, Liv and Speedy and Roy can have a family picnic or something." Laurel gave him a sad smile, as she watched them enter the portal.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Clark sat in the back of the trailer with Kara as they moved across the paddocks to feed the cattle with the bales of hay. Occasionally either he or Kara would lift one of the bales and toss it on the ground as Lois drove around the property.

He was grateful that Kara was willing to help him help his parents with the farm before he and Lois headed to Argo city. He just wanted to ensure that his parents wouldn't have to strain themselves to feed all the livestock when the three of them could do it in a few hours.

He took a sip of his beer and watched as Kara tossed the large bale behind her with only one hand. "I really appreciate you taking the time to help me with this, Kara. I know that Ma, and Pa, aren't your family, but I appreciate it."

Kara shook her head, you don't need to thank me, Kal. Jonathan and Martha raised you. I consider them an extension of my family because they helped you when I couldn't. And I need to keep my mind off what's happening with The DEO, and Alex."

Clark placed a comforting hand on his cousin's shoulder. "Things will eventually turn around. You just have to have patience, and hope."All of a sudden, the tractor came to an abrupt halt, almost knocking both Kryptonians out of the trailer. He heard Lois scream before she pulled out her gun, aiming it at two men who appeared out of nowhere on his parents' farm.

"Kara, Smallville, need some backup," Lois said as both of them raced towards them.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Kara widened her eyes, to see Oliver and Barry standing before them in the field. "Oliver, Barry?" She asked, lowering Lois's gun. "What are you two doing here?"

Barry widened his eyes as if he didn't expect her to know who he was. "You know that I'm Barry, and he is Oliver?"

Kara nodded disbelievingly, "Uh-huh. Why wouldn't I? You two are my friends. I attended your Wedding, Barry, and Oliver, I flew your daughter around your city for an early birthday present."

Both men sighed in relief. "Thank god."

Kara looked at them, they were certainly acting strange, or at the very least something strange was happening in their world. "Oh, guys, this is my cousin, Clark, also known as Superman on this earth, and his wife, Lois." Kara then introduced Oliver and Barry as The Flash and Green Arrow.

"So what brings you out here in the middle of Kansas, on my family's property?" Clark asked politely.

Kara nodded, "Yeah, why did you guys think I wouldn't recognize you? Did something weird happen on Earth-One?"

"Oh yeah." Oliver then vibrated his hand." This was certainly new. Oliver had Barry's powers and Barry had Oliver's skills?

"We really could use your help."

"Of course," Kara said immediately.

Clark shook both Oliver and Barry's hands. "I will too. As they say, many hands make light work. We will get this sorted out."

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

A cop watched as; The Black Canary and Killer Frost were thrown across the warehouse of Ivo labs. He brought his hand-held radio to his face to say, "We are going to need back up. Some sort of robot is destroying Ivo labs."

The giant robot took a large step towards the officer and the incapacitated heroes. It looked as if it were scanning them, before its chest molded into the shape of a bird, then a snowflake. It then somehow replicated Black Canary's cry, sending the cop and the heroes further back.

SCREEEEEEE

The giant robot then used Frost's powers to escape, leaving the area a few degrees cooler.

Black Canary slowly made her way to her feet."That's new. Nothing is ever normal when you guys are around. You two?" He asked before helping the cop to his feet.

Frost looked up to watch the giant robot leave, using her powers to escape. "It's got our powers…"

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Barry pulled out another arrow to shoot the empty paint tins. It must have been the hundredth paint tin that he had shot that day. He idly wondered if that was a part of the regimen that Oliver makes his sister and Roy do? It was boring and monotonous. It was entirely opposite to the kind of freedom he enjoyed as a speedster.

"Shoot again," Oliver ordered.

Barry lowered his bow, looking at Oliver. "C'mon, Ollie. I have been shooting tin cans all day."

Oliver looked at him. He looked more flustered and annoyed than Barry had ever seen him look. "Barry, unless an inanimate object, was the thing that rewrote our reality. You need to have at least a little combat training."

"I get it." Barry then smirked and pointed off in the distance. "Fine. Why don't you speed off over there? And run at me. And you will be hit by an arrow."

Oliver seemed to remember the last time he had done it to Barry."And where exactly did you hide the remote-controlled crossbows?"

Barry looked at him with both humor and a look that Oliver couldn't place. "I'm not you. When was the last time that I was underhanded?"

Oliver sighed, "Fine." He then sped off to the location that was agreed upon. "Ready?" He yelled.

Barry raised his bow. "Let's do this."

In a blink of an eye, Oliver caught the arrow in mid-flight a few feet from Barry. "Nice try," Oliver said in triumph, only to be hit by two crossbow bolts. Barry laughed hysterically, as Oliver groaned in pain.

"Haha! I have been waiting for four years to do this!" He then pulled out his camera to take a photo. Barry then pulled the arrows out of Oliver's back unceremoniously.

Oliver spun around looking really pissed off. "You think this is funny!? That my skills are a joke?"

Barry took a step back. "I was a better sport when you did it to me."

"I did it because I was training you. It was how I learned. You are doing this for a cheap laugh and petty revenge?" Oliver closed the distance between him and Barry."Fine. I dare you to hit me once."

It was Kara's cousin Clark that moved towards them. "I don't think that will be necessary." He then pointed at Oliver. "Oliver, right. Let's go for a walk. It's nice country."

Oliver glared at Barry but followed Clark over to the barn, and showed him a map. "This is the map of the property. My Pa used to make me run around these fields kind of like a circuit. To expel excess energy. We are going to race."

"Why?"

"Just humor me, please?" Clark asked as he moved to the entrance of the barn, to see that everyone else was back at the house. And it looked like Barry had moved to the other side of the house to practice his archery again, only this time he was trying to hit Kara as she moved around.

"Fine." He then felt Oliver stand next to him. In a blink of an eye, they raced around his family's property, past the old silo, the ruined stables near where Pete Ross and his family used to live, down past the springs, and finally down to the barn once again. They went around the circuit almost fifty times before they stopped at the barn, Only Oliver passed him by several feet.

Clark pulled out his glasses to clean them before wearing them.

"You stopped running."

"I think you may have overshot."

Oliver realized the distance, "Fair enough." He appreciated that Kara's cousin didn't look cocky. "So what was the lesson?"

"You need to learn how your speed works. It's a different skill-set. I find what helps both with flying, using my powers or what have you, is knowing what I'm headed towards. Why I'm doing it. What motivates you, Oliver." He then raised his hand. "You don't need to answer that out loud. You just need to know. From what Kara has told me about You, Barry and the others. Barry is the heart of your League of Justice."

Oliver nodded. He had to do this for his family. As much as for himself, and the others. "Again?"

" I'm ready when you are."

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Roy listened as Caitlin, Cisco, and Curtis explained how the giant robot, code-named AMAZO, worked. All from what he could gather was that the robot was able to replicate the powers of Laurel and Caitlin due to the mirakuru inside of it. And that ARGUS for some reason thought it would be ok for them to use that damn cursed liquid.

He hated how he had killed that cop all those years ago. Because of Slade and that drug's name. "Should we get Green Arrow and The Flash out to help?"

Laurel walked in, "Can't. I let them leave."

Roy raised his eyebrows, "Why?"

"When I spoke to the man that claimed he was Ollie. He spoke and looked at me the same way that he had always done. I gave them the device to go to Supergirl's earth to get a second opinion. I know in my bones that it was Ollie."

Cisco nodded, "I believe you." He then looked at Caitlin and Curtis. "There has been a lot of weird stuff happening. Red skies, Barry and Oliver. And I also vibed someone earlier. A guy with ridges on his head and mutton chops."

"And you think that this guy who likes to cosplay as a guy from the nineteenth century, and these events are somehow related?" Curtis noticed everyone looking at him. "Mutton chops were very popular back then…"

"So this guy with mutton chops was the one that started all of this?" Laurel asked, looking at the others in the room to understand if that was the current consensus.

"Maybe." Before they could discuss this more in-depth, the computer pinged, causing Curtis to swing around in his chair to look at the computer. "Our robot friend, AMAZO has entered Star City limits"

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver sat next to Barry on the steps to the farmhouse and handed him a bottle. "I'm…I'm sorry, Barry for being too hard on you." Oliver sighed. "When I saw you joking around and using my bow, it pissed me off more than I liked. I also didn't like that you woke up with my wife and daughter. It made me feel vulnerable." Oliver took another deep gulp of the amber liquid. "Laurel has been with me since before this started. She's always been there. And when I found out that she and my princess thought you were me...I felt scared.

"You could never be replaced in their lives, Ollie."Barry took a sip of his drink, "And I get it, about the training. You were just trying to help me. Is that how you taught Roy?"

Oliver chuckled. "No, I made him slap bowls of water for hours to build patience and strength." Oliver took a rather large gulp of his beer, "I'm glad that it was you that did wake up beside Laurel. Someone I can trust."

Barry smiled, feeling slightly embarrassed by Oliver's praise. "You have a lot more light within you than you realize."

"And you have more darkness that you don't let out." Oliver agreed. Thinking about how much darkness his friend had endured, and yet remained a beacon of hope.

"Maybe we both need to tap into those parts of us to get through this?'

"It's worth a try." Oliver finally said, clinking his bottle with Barry's.

"Finally!" Kara said, exiting the door. "Sorry." She mumbled. "Super-hearing. I have been waiting for the pair of you to work this out. And act like the brothers that you see yourselves as."

Oliver smiled slightly. "I need to smile more."

"That's most certainly a good start. You need to act like each other." Kara smiled, she then deepened her voice as much as she could. "I'm the Green Arrow."

"You failed this city!" Barry said, mimicking Oliver's gruff 'Arrow' voice.

"I don't sound like that." Oliver replied with some laughter in his voice. As they were enjoying their reprieve from the body-swap, a blue-white portal opened up and Cisco Ramon jumped out. Cisco greeted their Earth-Thirty-Eight friend before addressing Barry and Oliver by their correct names.

"You believe us now?"

Cisco nodded, "Sorry that we had you two locked up." He then looked down at his shoes, before looking back at the Earth One natives. "If you feel up to it, and forgive us, we could really use your help with a giant killer robot that is ready to destroy Star City."

Kara nodded, after seeing Oliver pale somewhat. "I'm in." She said immediately, then looked at Clark, who had walked up to them. "You in Cuz?

Clark kissed his wife's cheek, before nodding. "I'm in."

Cisco squinted his eyes at Clark. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"I'm a friend," Clark answered before ripping open his plaid shirt revealing the crest of the House of El.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Curtis watched as each of the three heroes, Green Arrow, Supergirl, and The Flash fought AMAZO. The Flash raced around the giant robot, keeping it unbalanced, as Kara distracted it with her laser vision.

While the AMAZO was focused on Supergirl and The Flash, Green Arrow jumped off of his motorcycle, and fired a concussive arrow at the robot, stunning it.

It was at that moment that he heard Green Arrow tell someone else to finish off the killer robot that was endangering City Hall, and many other citizens and police officers. All of a sudden, a man in a brilliant blue suit, and a crimson cape descended from the heavens and slammed the robot so hard that it was buried underground.

"I don't detect any movement, GA."

" _Nice Work."_

" _We got lucky."_

All of a sudden the Earth began to shake, and the AMAZO rose from the ground, Superman moved in to deliver several punches, only the robot had analyzed and copied their powers. It phased through every punch before using its Canary Cry to send Superman back.

Curtis and the others could only watch as Superman wiped a droplet of blood from his nose. It then kicked and threw the rest of the heroes in opposing directions.

Curtis looked over his shoulder to look at Caitlin and Cisco. "How do we stop it?"

"I have no idea," Cisco said his eyes glued to the screen.

It was Roy's voice that they hadn't expected, came with a possible answer. "If he is a robot, or a glorified computer, why not just turn it off?"

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver sped off to try to get the attention of the robot. Every step he took, he followed Clark and Barry's advice. He thought of every moment in his life that was not tainted by the darkness that he so often finds himself in.

Laurel, Olivia, Thea. His friends.

He raced around the city, it still felt odd running at these speeds, but he endured and dodged the lasers, cries and ice attacks that the robot tried to send his way. Oliver acknowledged Barry's plan and brought AMAZO into the trap that they had set for it.

He ran past the two Kryptonians, who both delivered a heavy punch each, sending the robot several yards away. Oliver sped back and held the robot in a headlock as Clark and Kara held its arms down. Barry delivered the final arrow, and obliterated their enemy, sending the heroes flying from the explosion.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

After everything was said and done, and both vigilante groups from Star and Central city agreed to work on the issue of Barry and Oliver swapping bodies, Clark shook Barry and Oliver's hands. And rubbed his temples. "I should head back. My family needs me, and someone needs to go back home to protect our Earth."

"Thanks, Clark. We couldn't have done it without you." Barry said.

"I'm not so sure about that. That's the thing about everyone, we don't know what we are capable of until we do."

"Thank you, Clark, for the advice," Oliver said, shaking the man's hand once again before Superman left for his parallel universe.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver found Laurel back in the bunker going over some of her legal work. She never stopped working. He found himself smiling, "Hey, you alright?"

Laurel smiled back, "Hey, I'm alright, you?"

"I'll be alright. I just need to return to my normal body."

Laurel nodded, standing up, and cupped his jaw with her hand. "You have a good heart, Ollie. You love your city, your family and friends. Just… Don't forget who you are and that even when you are incredibly stubborn and broody, that you are just as much a hero as everyone else."

"Thank you for keeping me grounded, Pretty Bird."

"It's part of my job." She said with a small playful smirk. "I'm going to go home and check up on Liv. If you need me, I'm just a call away."

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Cisco wiped his bloody nose after he had just shown Oliver his vibe that had the strange man once again, and how he was almost curious at how well the heroes of this earth managed to escape the trial.

Oliver returned with a sketch of the man, and in the background showed a building with a very iconic logo. Wayne Enterprises. "Wherever the man is, it leads us to Gotham City."

Kara nodded. "So that's where we head next."


	2. Arkham Asylum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another special thanks to Okori for reading through this chapter, as well as assisting me with some of the more smaller details to keep this fic more believable in-universe.
> 
> As for Gotham's vigilante, if you are a visual person, I would suggest you imagine him played by Matt Bomer.

Black Canary and Speedy were moving to the location that Curtis had given them. Both heroines had to try their best to ignore the reddish lightning storm that seemed to be following them, the occasional thunderbolt missing them by several yards.

Speedy looked up at the sky, before asking her sister-in-law, "Where is Ollie again?"

Black Canary sighed, "Ollie, Barry, and Kara are headed to Gotham City to try to reverse their mind-swap."

"And Olivia?" Thea asked as she followed in step with Laurel. "Where is she?"

"Ted is looking after her."

" _As touching as it is, you both talking about your family. I'm kind of worried about this strange storm, it seems to be following you guys, and that is only a theory, the storm has made most of our tech almost useless. I don't want to see you two hurt by Count Vertigo_." Curtis said over the comms.

Black Canary squeezed her eyes shut for a brief second to prepare to fight the metahuman criminal, Count Vertigo. She shouldn't be thinking of the mess her husband had found himself in right now, nor the fact that their daughter currently believed, along with the rest of the world, that Barry was her father. All she could do was pray that Ollie, Kara, and Barry would resolve it, and make everything return to normal, she wasn't sure how Oliver could live with Liv not seeing him as her father.

Her thoughts were disrupted when all of a sudden, one of the red lightning bolts, hit the ground between Laurel and Thea, both women were sent backwards by the force.

Once the duo made it to their feet, they saw The Count standing before them with a smirk. Black Canary stood up, unclipping her baton from her waist, she said, "You can't escape this time, Vertigo."

The man's smile grew wider as he lifted his right hand, sending a greenish pulse their way, Speedy and Black Canary's stomachs churned as they became dizzier, eventually falling back to their knees. Speedy managed to aim an arrow and fire it, only for it to miss its target.

The metahuman chuckled, "You missed."

Thea shook her head, "Nope." The arrow turned out to be an explosive arrow, that sent the man to the ground, before he got up Laurel used her cry to incapacitate him.

_SCREEEEEE_

Black Canary and Speedy moved towards Vertigo in order to zip-tie the man, restraining him. Afterwards, Curtis spoke over the comms. " _Canary, Speedy. GA, Supergirl, and The Flash want us to focus on the red storm and give them any information we can on it. Cisco is headed to Central City with Roy to explain to the rest of Team Flash what's happening, especially about the Freaky Friday meets Quantum Leap thing. Should I screen your calls Laurel, in case you get an angry message from a certain Speedster's wife?"_

Thea gave Laurel a knowing look. They both doubted that Patty would either confront Laurel or call her about waking up with Barry in her and Ollie's bed. It was a strange and bizarre anomaly, made by some crazed magic-user. Besides, everyone involved in their respective vigilante groups knew that they had signed up for not just a dangerous life, but also some strange cases, just like this one, Oliver and Kara's Nazi doppelgangers invading, and the alien invasion. It all made people like Damien Darhk, Ra's Al Ghul and Vandal Savage look normal in-comparison.

No, Patty may be hurt, but she wouldn't make a fuss, she understood the life they led.

"No, if she needs to talk, we can talk," Laurel answered as she and Thea heard the police sirens, before heading to their motorcycles and heading back to their base.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Roy had jumped through the breach, and even though he felt fine, he always wondered if he should have felt sick at being transported from his home state of Washington to Missouri. But he tried not to think about it too hard, the last thing he needed was a headache.

Cisco patted him on the back as Roy, wearing his Arsenal suit, though with the hood lowered, followed Cisco into the Cortex. Detective Joe West was the first person to look up at them with a look of worry, a look that he often saw Oliver and Laurel have when they were worried about their daughter. "Where's Bear? He was acting strange, he completely ignored me after he spoke to Sherloque Wells."

Cisco looked over to Patty, who had just entered. She moved quickly towards Cisco and Roy, "Cisco, Roy thank God." Her shoulders sagged in relief. "How's Barry?"

Cisco looked at Joe, Patty, Ralph, and Sherloque. "Uhhh…"

Roy cleared his throat, speaking for the first time since arriving via Cisco's portal thing that he couldn't begin to understand how it worked, even if he wanted to. "We aren't sure exactly how it happened, but Oliver and Barry swapped minds. Right now, the pair of them and Kara are chasing down a lead in Gotham City. We are also looking into the strange weather, the red storms. Cisco and Caitlin said that you guys have been having it too?"

Patty took a moment to digest that information, which likely meant that Barry woke up in bed with Laurel through no fault of their own. She had to resist laughing at how awkward her Barry would have reacted in that scenario. Thankfully, though, it also explained her husband's disappearance, and him bailing on their lunch date, without telling her first that something had come up.

She reminded herself that she would have to check in with Laurel Lance to ensure that she and her daughter were fine with this quite frankly bizarre occurrence they found themselves in.

Cisco looked over at Roy and we should probably retrieve Caitlin and Curtis and bring them over here, where we have more tech." He then sighed, "Are you, Thea and Laurel capable of holding the city without Curtis?"

Roy gave a short jerk of his head. "We can manage. We always do." He said before walking back into Cisco's portal to tell the others what was happening."

Patty moved to one of the computers, next to Sherloque, to start analyzing the storms in both Star and Central.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver, Barry, and Kara moved slowly through Gotham, it was truly a city on the decline, it reminded Oliver of what Starling was starting to look like following The Undertaking, and again when Darhk had started pushing people out of the city.

Barry, in comparison to Oliver's more reflective mood, looked amazed as he saw a faded black bat spray-painted onto a small alley wall with a blue 'V' over its chest. He looked over at Oliver, "You think The Bat of The Narrows was real?"

Oliver shrugged, "If he did exist, he maintained a low profile like Laurel's mentor Ted Grant did before I became The Hood." He also recalled Sara telling him and the others about a group of heroes that worked for the government during the 40s. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that such a vigilante existed.

Barry nodded slightly, "I just remember people referring to him, or another man later on when I was searching for the impossible. I couldn't ever find anything credible about him."

Oliver kept them moving, the whole city felt seedier than The Glades. I think that we should find a better part of town if we can."

Kara snorted as she cased the area with her enhanced sight. "Funny that you think that there is a good part of town."

It was at that moment that they were surrounded by armed men with assault rifles. "Gentlemen, my Lady." One of the men said. "It looks like you are from out of town and yet, you haven't paid your tax. Hand over your phones, wallets, and any other valuables you may have." The last sentence was directed at Barry, who the world thought was Oliver.

Oliver raised his hands, "We don't want trouble, surely we can work something out?"

The leader pulled out a large pistol and rested it against Oliver's forehead. "Sure, we can talk it out. Once your brains are splattered across the curb." He then fired his gun. In the blink of an eye, Oliver had taken a step back, and Kara had caught the bullet. Followed quickly by Barry disarming the man and putting the gun to his face, ignoring Oliver's commands to stop.

Oliver realized that Barry certainly had a darker side to him that he never let out. That, like him, in many ways would do anything for the people he loved. Barry had lost many people in his short life, from a young age, his mother was murdered in front of him. It was as if Barry had temporarily snapped.

Police sirens were heard before they entered the road, aiming their guns at the three heroes and the criminals. "On the ground now!" One officer barked.

As everyone but Barry knelt, Oliver looked up at him, to try to get him to snap out of it, and comply with the police orders, only it was too late. The sergeant grabbed his radio. "I need SWAT at Conroy and Bale! The Green Arrow has been sighted. I repeat Oliver Queen has been spotted!"

"We don't want any trouble Sergeant," Kara said, trying to deescalate the situation.

"Well tell that to Oliver Queen."The officer's gun never wavered from being aimed directly at Barry's chest.

Oliver scooted closer to Barry and gently kicked his friend's ankle to get his attention. The younger man looked at him, before lowering the pistol and getting down to his knees, accepting the police to arrest them.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver, Kara, and Barry sat in the corner of the holding cell together. It had been almost an hour since he had asked for them to call his lawyer. Considering they hadn't mentioned anything for some time, he was beginning to suspect that the cops were not as clean as they tried to paint themselves as.

Barry looked over at Oliver, "You sure that Laurel will come to get us out of prison? She may have had second thoughts about trusting our story about living each other's lives. And a prison cell is an easy way to keep us together without wasting resources."

Oliver sighed. "Laurel isn't like that." He then looked over at Barry. "She fought both in your city and for you in the courtroom when you were in jail. She did the same when I was in Slabside. I know Laurel better than anyone. She won't leave us to rot."

Kara nodded slowly, "They did call her a little while ago, she said that she was almost in Gotham and that she was on her way."

Oliver sighed and rested his head against the cement wall. Laurel was probably waiting a bit, to make it believable that she just arrived, and not just appeared in the blink of an eye. He hoped that their daughter was blissfully unaware of what was happening to her father and that when everything returned to normal, she would recognize him.

He heard the doors open, followed by Laurel Laurel arguing that Oliver is a citizen who is well within his rights to defend his person from gangbangers. That he wasn't in Gotham for any sort of vigilantism.

"And who are his companions?" An officer asked her.

Oliver saw her smile slightly, "Barry Allen is an acquaintance of mine," she said as her eyes locked on Oliver's. "And the other woman is Oliver's handler." She then folded her arms and glared at the officer. "Release my husband, our friend and their handler. I won't ask again, or would you want an anonymous tip from the FBI about the alleged corruption of this city's law enforcement?"

Oliver and the other two could only watch as the officer paled and quickly moved towards their cell to let them out. "Your wife is scary." Kara murmured to Oliver as they walked towards Laurel.

Oliver could only smile with pride as he made a b-line for Laurel, only for her to shake her head slightly.

Right. He was Barry Allen. He exhaled dejectedly and followed Laurel out of the Police Precinct. As they walked away from the GCPD, Oliver's stomach growled loud enough for Laurel, beside him to hear. She opened her bag and discreetly handed him a couple of Olivia's muesli bars that she always seemed to have on her person for their daughter.

"Thank you, Laurel."

The four heroes walked side by side down the sidewalk, Laurel clicked her tongue, "I thought you guys were going to look into Wayne Enterprises, not go looking for trouble."

"I was just trying to protect them," Barry answered.

"So Oliver Queen, had to step up, a former convicted criminal instead of an alien with super-speed, and strength or a speedster?" Laurel asked as she noticed a black car following them. Without giving Barry the time to defend his actions, she spoke to Oliver in a low tone, "You see our tail?"

Oliver nodded, finishing off his snacks, "Just keep walking." He suggested, before the car stopped in front of the four heroes.

A man stepped out, wearing a suit, and by the looks of it, he was wearing a Kevlar vest beneath it all. "Would the four of you please come with me."

Kara shook her head. " We appreciate the offer, but we should be heading to our hotel."

Barry then said, "We really should be going."

The man looked undeterred. "I was sent by my employer to bail the three of you out. He hadn't expected your wife, Mr. Queen, to arrive so quickly to secure your release."

"I'm resourceful." Laurel said back, "It's time for us to go."

"Alas, my employer disagrees, and wishes to meet with you." He then moved his jacket to reveal his hidden pistol. "He is rather insistent on meeting with you four."

The four heroes looked at each other before coming to a silent agreement that they would speak to the man's employer. Perhaps, he was the solution to their issues.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

After being driven around the city, he found himself seeing how much worse Gotham was to The Glades. The Glades were bad, but it was never this bad, the people of Star always somehow managed to bounce back somehow.

They were let out on a street corner, in front of a large high-rise. Kara whistled, "We were going to be bailed out by Bruce Wayne? If that's true, he is very different from the playboy billionaire on my Earth."

"Bruce Wayne hasn't been seen in years. One day, he just disappeared, and was never heard from again."

The four entered the building to see that the inside wasn't much better than the outside, holes in the walls, graffiti, broken bottles on the ground. Laurel looked up and gestured to her husband and the others to look up as well.

"That's not Bruce Wayne," Barry said more to himself than to anyone else.

A man stood above them, looking down from the balcony. "I'm a bit too young to be Bruce Wayne." The dark-haired blue-eyed man said, with some mirth to his voice. He was silent for a bit, before looking at them more closely. "Well, look at Star City's most famous power couple. Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance."

"Is that why you attempted to bail them out?" Laurel asked with her arms folded. "For a favor?"

The man laughed,showing off his pearly white smile. "No, I was just being a good Samaritan." His blue eyes then looked at Barry, "I saw your documentary the other night. If the Emerald Archer is planning on leaving Star for Gotham, I have to tell you that you may not fare well against those that live here."

Barry stuttered. "I could never hope to step on the turf of The Bat of The Narrows." Oliver playfully glared at Barry, who was merely teasing his friend.

The man with dark hair and blue eyes gave them a charming smile, but Oliver noticed his eyes looked opposite to what he tried to portray, the man before them looked melancholic beneath his mask. "No one has seen The Bat in years."

"Who are you?" Laurel asked.

"Richard Grayson, you can call me Dick. I am, or was Bruce's adopted son." He then adjusted his jacket and tie, before he gestured with his head for the four heroes to follow him, Barry and Kara followed their host.

Laurel moved to follow, only for Oliver to catch her wrist and pull her into his embrace. He kissed her, before speaking, in a soft voice. "Thank you for coming out all this way for us, Pretty Bird." He then rested his forehead on hers. Laurel could just hear Kara telling Dick and Barry that they would catch the next elevator.

Oliver pulled back, and lowered his voice to a whisper so that no surveillance could pick up his voice. "How's Liv?"

"I just told her that you weren't feeling well. Ted is looking after her, while Speedy and Roy are keeping the city safe while the others are trying to figure out how the red storms work, and if it has any relation to your situation with Barry." Oliver's shoulders sagged in relief as the man had volunteered to help him with Chase on Lian Yu without being asked. He would trust the man with his life.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Joe was honestly not sure what the team of scientists and incredibly smart people were saying. He wished that he wasn't the only one that didn't understand what was happening. Ralph was in the field ensuring that there was a super-hero presence, and The heroes from Star City; namely Thea Queen and Roy Harper were protecting their own city.

He listened to them say something about 'breaches' followed by a lot of scientific mumbo-jumbo, Barry would have had a field day, it certainly looked like Patty was enjoying helping the team with researching the storms that were covering Star and Central.

Patty looked up, to notice that he looked lost. "Joe?" The West patriarch moved towards the woman he considered to be his daughter-in-law. Barry, Patty and their daughter from the future, Nora, were his only family that had remained in the city, apart from Cecil and their daughter. Wally had joined The Peace Corps, and Iris had moved to Keystone with her husband and his former partner Eddie.

"Yeah?" Joe answered.

"They believe the storms are large breaches. And they are thinking of stabilizing them to allow whatever is trying to come to us."

"That could be dangerous, but what happens if that brings something worse to either city? For all, we know it could be another attempt at an invasion." Zoom had tried, so had aliens and Inter-dimensional Nazis.

"It's a high chance, considering everything that we have seen. But we have to try, maybe they know what is happening? Or they may know how to reverse it?"

Joe gave his best attempt at a reassuring smile, and gently squeezed Patty's shoulder. "Let's hope that they only give us good news."

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Barry handed Dick Grayson the sketch of the strange man with mutton chops, next to another man. Dick studied the drawing for several minutes, before looking up at the four people in front of him. "I can't tell you who these men are. Gotham, despite its less than stellar reputation, is still home to thousands of men and women."

Barry nodded, looking slightly dejected that their only lead wasn't panning out. "Oh, okay."

Dick looked out the window to see the city, "If you want, I can run it down to R&D, Mr. Fox wouldn't be opposed to running a simple facial recognition test if you haven't done so already."

"We have, but we appreciate the offer, Mr. Grayson."

Grayson gave Oliver an amused look, "As you wish, Queen."

Kara looked curiously at Dick, who managed to keep his charming smile. "It's rather strange, isn't it? Bruce Wayne disappears roughly the same time as The Bat?"

Grayson chewed his lip for a second before plastering on a charming smile, once again. "The Bat of The Narrows hasn't been seen for almost ten years. It doesn't mean that Bruce was him. Captain Gordon was killed around the same time. Unless you are planning on convincing me that a decorated police officer was a vigilante as well?"

Kara didn't respond to that, as Dick Grayson moved towards the door. "You can use this building as a base of operations while you go on your mission." He opened the door, "Oh, the Wi-Fi password is: Alfred." Dick said, before closing the door behind him.

"So what's our next lead?" Laurel asked, rubbing her hands together to keep warm.

"Back to the drawing board?" Kara suggested.

Oliver pulled out a small external hard drive, "No, we aren't." He said looking at the curious faces of Kara and Barry, while Laurel looked at him with an unsurprised, if not amused look. "I lifted this from the GCPD, it should have their entire database on it."

Barry's eyes widened in shock. "You stole that from the police?"

Oliver looked at him with a look of mock offense, "Of course not Barry. The Flash did." He said with a small smirk and started to move away towards his bags and pulled out a laptop.

Barry noticed that both women looked amused at Oliver's antics. "This isn't funny."

Both women shook their heads. "No." Laurel agreed with a tight smile.

"Right, it wasn't funny. We didn't say a word."

Oliver eventually found the man next to the man with mutton chops in the GCPD database. "Found him. His name is John Deegan."

Laurel looked over his shoulder. "Torture, illegal experimentation, along with numerous other criminal conduct."

"Lovely," Kara said sarcastically. "A doctor who experiments on his patient's brains.

"A real charmer," Barry added.

"He was acquitted," Laurel said, as she read out loud, from over her husband's shoulder. "No known address and he was fired and lost his medical license almost…"

"Five years ago," Oliver said for her.

Kara sighed, as she slowly moved away from them to pick up her bag. "So we are back at square one?"

"Seems that way," Barry answered, He then noticed Kara holding her bag. "Where are you going?"

Kara held her bag up, "Going for a quick fly around the city to see if I can see him with my X-ray vision."

"I don't think that Mr. Grayson would like us running around his city."

Kara shrugged, "Unless Mr. Grayson has some kryptonite stashed somewhere, I'm really not worried."

As Kara left, Barry noticed that Oliver and Laurel were having one of their silent conversations. He had noticed them doing that when in the field, or even in fights, it was sometimes just a glance, but apparently that glance could be a whole conversation between them. "What?" He asked as he moved towards them. "You have something?"

Oliver shrugged, slightly. "It may be nothing, but we just think that Mr. Grayson isn't exactly being entirely honest to us about himself. He's hiding something."

"Well we are strangers to him, it's not like he will be completely honest with people he doesn't trust."

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Dick hated that he felt compelled to watch the forensic scientist from Central City, the former mayor of Star, and District Attorney of Star City, with a woman that had no known identity across any database that he could find.

He wanted to trust them, it was in his nature, he wasn't as dour and cynical as Bruce was before he was killed. But there was a piece of advice that always stayed with Dick; Trust but verify. There was more to these people than what a first glance would tell him.

Oliver was The Green Arrow, that was a fact. After some further research Laurel Lance was more than likely the Black Canary. It made sense considering how close the two heroes seemed to be. That begged the question of how Barry Allen and this unknown woman sat in this strange puzzle.

He looked up to see Kara walk past the office he was using. "Heading out?" Dick asked Kara, standing from behind the desk.

Kara looked flustered as if she was caught with her hands in the cookie jar. "Uh, yeah… I needed to clear my head, a new city, and all that." She then cleared her throat and took a hesitant step into the office. "I wanted to apologize for the third degree. I suppose the name Bruce Wayne carries a certain degree of notoriety."

"Bruce could be fickle. Distant." Dick said slowly, but didn't look angry or upset at her statement as he rounded the table, "He saved me when I lost my entire family. He's more than an adoptive father or an older brother, he was my mentor."

Kara nodded slightly, feeling guilty. "You think that keeping his two identities a secret took too much of a toll on him and that's why he left."

A tear slid down Dick's face, his bottom lip covering the top one, "It was hard on him, but that's not what happened. But I know that he is in a better place, and I'm just trying to maintain his legacy as a philanthropist, a misunderstood man who loved and cared for his city and the people in it."He let out a jagged breath. He remembered the building in The Narrows collapsing on top of Bruce and The Joker, killing them both. He had taken Bruce's body and buried him next to his parents.

"I'm in the process of making this building an orphanage for people who were less fortunate than myself or Bruce," Dick said after a small silence.

"A noble goal," Kara said softly. After a small moment of silence, Kara looked up at the man who had graciously let her and her friends use the building as their temporary HQ, who was currently tapping his finger looking out the large windows overlooking the city. "You don't know a John Deegan do you, by chance?"

Dick stopped tapping, and turned to face her, "Deegan?" He echoed. "Yes, one of Bruce's friends, Harvey Dent, the District Attorney, has had issues with a John Deegan, who works at Arkham Asylum."

Kara could barely contain her delight at hearing that bit of information. "Thank you so much, you have no idea how much this will help us. I have to tell the others."

Dick found her smile to be infectious. "Maybe after you have spoken to Mr. Deegan, you and I can go out for a couple of drinks?"

"Oh," Kara said, feeling her cheeks heat up. "I… I don't think so…After everything is done, I should be heading back home."

Dick watched her leave quite quickly, before he moved over to a bookcase, pulled a book out, and waited for the shelves to move, granting him entry to a hidden room. There in front of him, beside one of Bruce's old suits was his midnight black suit with a blue V around the chest.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Joe was standing watching Caitlin, Curtis, Cisco, and Sherloque Wells. He could only watch in awe and curiosity as they built a strange device. after hearing a strange and an over the top technical answer from Curtis Holt, it made him wish he was in The Cortex with Patty helping her on the Comms while Ralph and Nora were in the field.

"Want to try that again, in English?"

Caitlin looked up, "It's a giant magnet designed to pull whoever is trying to enter the breach through it to our side."

Joe looked up at the strange crimson sky, "You could have lead with that."

All of a sudden, the skies started raining down with more lightning strikes, some strikes were white, others gold. After each bolt hit, the winds got stronger. After several minutes of nothing but strong winds, and the crimson lightning bolts with the occasional white, yellow or purple bolt, a breach appeared, with someone wearing a flash suit, by the sound of the man's voice, it was Jay Garrick.

His voice was hard to hear thanks to the storm, and likely however he was able to talk to them. "Ca... you... Hear me?" He managed to ask, "You've got... to... get... the book."

"Jay?" To Joe, it was always strange seeing Henry's face on another man, he didn't know how Barry managed to look at him, without seeing his father or breaking down.

"Only... book... make this right. If you get the book, you may be able to fix this."

Curtis spoke, without knowing the significance of seeing Jay. "Did anyone else think that was really cool? Back home we don't get to do stuff like this!"

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Barry, Oliver, Kara, and Laurel were standing outside of Arkham Asylum's front gates. Barry looked towards Oliver and Laurel, "What's the plan?" He asked, when neither answered he spoke again, "Ollie, do you think that you have enough experience with my speed to be able to do some reconnaissance?"

Oliver shook his head, "I think it's best that we don't risk it on the chance that I'm not."

"Fair enough."

Kara looked at Oliver and Laurel, "Barry said that you two have been trained by literal ninjas, could you both sneak in, and I will be your lookout."

Before either Star City native could answer the question, a breach opened and Cisco jumped out followed by Caitlin. "We have come bearing good news!" Cisco said, looking excited.

"The storms were made by someone we think it was Jay." Caitlin said looking at Barry." He told us to fix the situation, we have to get 'the book'."

Laurel pulled out Oliver's sketch of the man with mutton chops with John Deegan. Deegan was reading a large tome, that by the looks of it, the man with mutton chops had given him. "How much do you want to bet that this is a mystical artifact with the power to change the world?"

Oliver said next, "So we get in, and either locate this book, or find this Deegan, and force him to tell us where he hid this book so we can undo this bizarre day." Right now, he just wanted to sit on the sofa, with Laurel and Liv watching one of her children's cartoons.

Kara looked at Caitlin, before looking at the rest of the team. "I think I have an idea of how we can get in without raising too many alarms. Killer Frost, may have an appointment in the Asylum, while the rest of you sneak in." She spoke to Laurel, Oliver and Barry.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Laurel and Oliver moved through the area silently. Over the comms, they could hear Kara pretending to be an orderly who was committing Caitlin to the Asylum. Oliver gently squeezed Laurel's gloved hand, before following her down a hallway with some names on the doors.

"How does it feel being a metahuman, _Flash_?" Laurel asked in a whisper, slightly teasing him.

"I think that I will leave it to you, Barry, and the others in Central City. I miss the life that we have." He said honestly.

Laurel stopped, turning around as she cupped his jaw, "It will be back to normal when we get that book or Deegan. I promise, everything will work out, you just have to have some faith."

Oliver rested his forehead against hers before they made their way to Deegan's office. Oliver moved in beside Laurel, who was dressed in her suit. "John Deegan." She said through a voice modulator.

The man jumped off his desk and looked at Oliver with amusement. "Oliver Jonas Queen." He then mimicked, firing a bow and arrow. "A pleasure to meet you, and you as well, Black Canary."

Black Canary watched her husband from the corner of her eyes, "He knows who you are." It was a warning to Oliver, just as much as it was a statement of a fact.

"I initially planned on becoming The Flash, but from what I understand, you took that role. It seems altering reality has a higher learning curve than I was anticipating."

Oliver took an intimidating step towards the man in the lab coat. "You changed reality, you can change it back." He said in a low growl. He had not only altered his life but had changed how his family viewed him. His own daughter wouldn't recognize her father's face.

"Oh, I could. But will I?" He shook his head. He then leaned towards the table, before an alarm sounded. Laurel spun and used her cry, only for Deegan to manage to dive around the wall, and out of the range of her cry.

"He bought himself time."

Oliver nodded, looking very unhappy. "Another prison outbreak." He then looked at Laurel. "Be careful."

Laurel kissed him, "You too."

Oliver, in the blink of an eye, was now in The Flash's suit and spoke to Laurel. "Help return the inmates to their cells, then help find that book. I will go get Barry."

Black Canary nodded, pulling out her nightstick. She advanced down one of the hallways as Oliver disappeared, leaving behind gold lightening. After returning several inmates back to their cages, he returned to a stairwell, where Laurel was in the middle of fighting, a handful of men were either lying unconscious on the ground or slumped against the walls.

As fast as he could, Oliver darted around the prison, throwing each inmate into their cell that Laurel had incapacitated before helping her take out the last few inmates. It provided him with a sense of normalcy that he had been craving since he had woken up as Barry Allen.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Barry stood outside the main doors of the asylum with the bow at the ready. He shot several inmates who tried to escape, and a couple of others who had pinned a guard, and started beating him to a pulp.

Before he realized and forgot that he no longer had his speed, he and Cisco were surrounded by inmates. They heard someone whistle above them, everyone looked up to see a man wearing a black suit, with a blue V on his chest.

The masked vigilante used some sort of grappling hook and suspended the inmates from the rooftop. Before weaving himself around Barry and Cisco, grabbed the masked inmate's weapon, and breaking the man's hand. "shouldn't sneak up on people, it's not nice." The vigilante then pulled out an escrima stick and sparked the end. "Your choice, you can head inside, or you can receive some voltage to your head?"

"Inside." The man begged.

"Good." The man then knocked out the masked inmate. He then looked up at Barry and Cisco. "He wasn't going to do it. But I like giving them the chance."

"Who are you?"

The masked vigilante smiled, "I'm Nightwing." He said quickly before using his grapple hook and headed up onto the balcony, swinging himself into the window like a gymnast.

It wasn't long after Barry and Cisco watched Nightwing in awe, did they hear Caitlin requesting for help. He ran into the building, hearing Laurel and Kara say that they were unable to help, and as she was busy with the inmates, he then also heard Oliver say that he was en-route to help as well.

Barry rushed to see Caitlin thrown across the storage room. He ran over to her as Oliver arrived. His friend looked at Caitlin, before looking up to see the woman with the strange weapon. He marched forwards, ignoring Barry's pleas to stop, Oliver threw a lightning bolt that missed its target entirely and instead of hitting the woman, it hit other objects on the shelves, including some sort of gas canisters.

The gas started to form a large cloud in the room.

Out of the clouds, a man wearing a suit similar to Oliver's only he had a sword along with a quiver on his back. "A…Adrian Chase?" Barry asked, taking a step back from Oliver's dead foe. "But you're dead."

Chase tutted, "I kept telling Oliver that I was ten steps ahead of him, and now it's time for his student to learn the same. John Diggle died on the beaches of Lian Yu, I almost killed Olivia, what chance do you have when a psychopath like Oliver barely managed to beat me?"

"I won't stop until you have been stopped," Barry swore to Prometheus, who moved in to punch him.

"You don't have your speed, Barry, what hope do you have without it?"

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver blinked several times after he inhaled the gas, despite his best efforts. It felt like he couldn't use Barry's speed. Everything felt off, his heart started thumping in his chest. It was at that moment, Eobard Thawne dressed in his yellow suit, moved out from the cloud of chemicals.

"You're not a hero, Oliver. Not even when you wear or use your friend's speed or suit. You're a monster, and You know that deep down, that despite your wife's assurances you truly are a monster."

Oliver blinked, at seeing the man that he had helped apprehend for Barry. "I wonder what will happen when I put my hand through Laurel's heart? You will snap, and be arrested. Your metahuman daughter will grow up to resent her father, and become the antithesis of her parents."

Oliver took a decisive step forward, reeling back his arm to punch the Reverse-Flash. "You won't touch Laurel or harm my daughter. My family is off limits!"

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Caitlin stood up from where she was knocked down to see that Barry and Oliver were fighting each other. Each blow they gave, the other returned it with a harder hit. She pressed the comms link and spoke. "We have a problem, Barry and Oliver are fighting each other, it's like they are in some sort of trance."

She didn't pay attention to the response, from either Cisco, Laurel or Kara, as a man wearing a black suit, with a blue V on his chest looked at them with curiosity for a second, before throwing one of his sticks at the cement floor, forcing it to bounce and hit Barry in the head, while he flipped Oliver over his shoulder.

"Who are you?"

The man gave her a charming smile, before moving over to the broken vials. "Your two friends are experiencing each other's nightmares."

"How did you?"

"Unless D.A. Lance makes out with Barry Allen on the side, I would say that they had swapped minds or some sort of Freaky Friday shenanigans." He then looked like he was listening to someone on his own comms line. "They should be fine after a few minutes."

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver looked at their team as he listened to Caitlin ask how someone changes reality with a book. Oliver sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It's probably like Laurel thought, a mystical object. Deegan said that he used the book to rewrite reality.

"To what end?" Cisco asked.

Barry shrugged, "We'll find out when we return to STAR Labs."

Nightwing appeared in front of them, "I normally operate within the shadows more than how you lot do. But I can't say that it wasn't interesting watching you all operate. Especially watching you two go mano-a-mano. " He said to Barry and Oliver. "Hope you guys fix your strange circumstances."

Oliver stared at the man as he walked into the fog of the night. Dick Grayson was the vigilante that saved them. That only meant that Bruce Wayne was The Bat of The Narrows.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver, upon entering The Cortex, watched as Barry instinctively moved to bring Patty into his embrace, giving her a quick peck on the lips before hugging his father. Oliver watched as Curtis moved towards him.

"I'm assuming that is the infamous grimoire that holds the secret to reverse this weird circumstance?" With a small nod from Oliver, Curtis silently took the tome and gave Oliver a small pat on his shoulder. "I promise that we will have this fixed as soon as humanly possible so that you and your wife can spend a night with Liv as a family." Curtis then handed Oliver a plate with a couple of slices of pizza. "Cisco said that you have to keep eating to maintain your energy."

"I appreciate that."

Curtis simply nodded, before lowering his voice. "No one will hear it from me that you are more worried about what is happening than you let on. I have your back, G.A."

Oliver made his way towards Laurel, as the others started following Curtis to find out how to open the book. He felt Laurel give him a reassuring squeeze of his hand. As she did, a portal opened up and an older looking man in a Flash suit appeared.

"Jay?"Barry asked, only for the older speedster to shake his head. "Dad?" Barry asked in almost a whisper as if he was scared of being disappointed.

"No, I'm not, son. My name is Barry Allen, I'm The Flash." He then looked at Oliver and Laurel together. "Some things never change, no matter the universe. Oliver Queen and Dinah Laurel Lance, always and forever."

"Where are you from?" Laurel asked.

"Earth 90." Older Barry answered. "I have come to warn you about Mar Novu, The Monitor. He's using the Book of Destiny to test each parallel universe."

"Protect them from what?" Barry asked while Patty rubbed his forearm in an attempt to ground him.

"A crisis that he believes is imminent."

Cisco pulled up a broadcast of the man with mutton chops in the middle of a road in downtown Central City. "He's the guy, the one that I have been vibing."

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Black Canary, Supergirl, Green Arrow, and two different speedsters walked towards The Monitor. "Mar Novu. Stand down now!" Barry ordered as they marched towards him.

"You will use the book to set reality back to how it was," Oliver demanded.

The Monitor seemed amused by Earth 1's Heroes along with Supergirl, and the older Flash. " I could, but that would defeat the purpose of giving Deegan the book in the first place."

"Enough!" The older Flash said. "I will not allow you to do to this earth what you did to my own!" he then in a blink of an eye, sped towards The Monitor, only to be sucked up by a breach.

The four heroes looked at the spot their ally had disappeared to with fear, and Monitor was something very different from the likes they had faced in the past.

"He said you were testing us." Black Canary said looking at the being in front of her.

"And thus far, I'm unimpressed. I came to prepare for what is to come, to find champions to prevent what is to come."

"You are an agent of chaos, and you are blaming people for not cleaning up your mess!" Oliver growled at the man but remained where he stood, in between Laurel and Barry, lest he ended up like the other Barry Allen.

"Take heart. You are the first of all others I have tested to manage to retrieve The Book of Destiny." The man then moved his fingers slightly. "For all the good it did you."

 _"G.A., B.C. The book disappeared in thin air."_ Curtis told them over the comms.

Oliver clenched his jaw and curled his hand into a tight fist. "I have had enough, Kara?"

Kara nodded, "I would love to." She charged at the man, only for her to end up back next to Barry.

"You have potential, I will grant you that. Time to see if it is more than that." Having said his piece, The Monitor disappeared.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Barry and Oliver looked around to see that they were alone, and no longer alongside Laurel or Kara. Oliver spun on his heels looking for his wife, hoping to God that his wife was safe, and that Laurel was hopefully with their daughter.

"Where are Kara and Laurel?" Barry asked.

"I don't know." Oliver stammered. He looked down to see that he and Barry were wearing black jeans and black leather jackets. "But we have to assume that Deegan rewrote reality once again."

Oliver watched as Barry knelt to pick up a newspaper that had both of them on the front page, saying that they're brothers who robbed a series of banks and jewelry stores. A police sedan skidded in front of them. Two men exited the vehicle with their guns drawn, Oliver recognized the first man as Ricardo Diaz, and heard Barry say the other man's name under his breath, his friend, his younger brother, really, sounded so terrified to Oliver's ears. Hunter Zolomon. Zoom.


	3. Fate and Destiny

Deegan watched in awe as the cosmic being handed him the heavy tome. Telling him that he expected Deegan to use to book with more ambition, and to change the world as he saw fit. Deegan smiled at the man. Someone finally realized his potential that he was instrumental in preserving the world, even when others didn't see it that way. He was always the unsung hero and now was getting the recognition he deserved.

He opened the book to see the runes turn a bright white color that almost blinded him. He closed his eyes. First and foremost, Oliver Queen and Barry Allen. The Green Arrow and The Flash would become criminals. The world wouldn't know them as one of the four saviors of the world.

Next, he imagined himself to be the pinnacle of truth, justice, and the American way. Just like the man that he had watched fight the large robot. He would become Superman. A nigh-indestructible man. A titan amongst men.

He felt his body become warm before he looked down to see himself in a black version of the man of steel. He looked up to the Monitor and smiled proudly.

"You have done well, Mr. Deegan. Let us see how long it stays that way."

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver and Barry were running through the back streets of the city until they came to an abrupt halt. Clark Kent, wearing a black version of his suit, hovered just off the ground in front of him, with his hand out to them to stop. His cape fluttered lightly behind him.

"It's over, gentlemen."

Oliver looked at Barry, who like him was equally confused. His friend managed to speak to the Earth-38 native. "Clark, it's me, Barry and Oliver."

Oliver watched as the man cracked a small smug smirk, "Oh I know exactly who you are, Mr. Allen and Mr. Queen. But that's your problem, you assume that I'm the man that fought alongside you with Supergirl, Nightwing and Black Canary. I'm someone vastly more intelligent and cunning than him. "

"Deegan." Oliver realized, his fists clenching at his sides. "The Monitor gave you the Book Of Destiny back?"

"Got it in one."

Oliver heard Barry take a step forward. "You can't just make yourself a hero by rewriting reality. It doesn't work that way."

Not-Superman chuckled, "Doesn't it though? Here I am, a hero and you two are criminals. Is there really any difference between being struck by lightning, or being marooned on a deserted island? The Monitor, gave me the chance, just like the island and the bolt of lightning gave you yours."

Oliver closed his eyes for a brief second. Everyone, every person he considered a hero already had a hero's heart before becoming one. Laurel was already helping the helpless since she started volunteering in high school, Barry helped people without blinking an eye, Roy helped people when he was just a kid living on the streets, Kara was sent to earth with no purpose beyond ensuring her cousin was safe.

"A hero isn't something that you can just become, it's something that has always been in the person," Oliver said glaring at the man. Seeing him look like Kara's cousin was a mockery not just of him, but of every hero that he had ever fought alongside. "You are nothing but a cheap imitation of the real thing, Deegan."

"Oh, I'm anything but cheap." He said with a wide smile, before using his eyes to shoot lasers at a nearby crane. The construction vehicle bent at the heat, before it started to bend, ready to fall on people including children.

Deegan chuckled looking towards the heroes of this world. A reformed playboy-billionaire turned Robin Hood and a man who became one of the fastest men alive. "If you think that was impressive, wait until you see what I did to everything and everyone you love. Your friends, your family… You no longer have an oasis to recover from your day, no one with a kind ear to listen to your woes. Either I will stop you from rebelling against my new world order, or you will tire and give yourselves up voluntarily."

Deegan fluttered his sable cape behind him, his hands sitting on his hips. "This is my world now, and you are no longer gods amongst men. I am. The Man of Steel. The Savior of Earth."

Deegan then clapped his hands with some force, sending shock-waves hurtling towards the two newly crowned criminals, hurtling them backwards and into the assorted tools and equipment used for building.

The next thing he saw, was Oliver Queen jumping to his feet with relative ease, as if he had been on the brunt of a sonic wave before, and aimed his gun at Deegan.

How thick and obtuse were these so-called heroes? Couldn't they fathom that he was a titan and they were nothing but ants beneath his boots? The Monitor had chosen him! "That fall must have made your head soft, Mr. Queen. I'm bulletproof, just like your friend, Ms. Danvers."

Strangely, Queen gave a small jerk of his head, as if he already knew. "I know." Was all he said before he shot the cable that had managed to hold the crane from falling down on the people below.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver glared at the man trying to imitate them. He shot the pistol, the cable broke, and forced the crane to bend, until it started to fall, the loud metallic groans pierced his ears, though it was at a much different and more uncomfortable pitch than Laurel's, as her cry usually heralded aid and assistance.

He stood up straight, as both Deegan and Barry winced at the sound. "Your choice, _Superman._ Do you want to be a hero? Choose between catching us, or saving the children below." Oliver felt his stomach twist at the gamble he was taking, if this didn't work, he had just killed kids on a field trip. Children that were only a few years older than his baby girl.

Barry seemed to notice his doubts, and spoke, taking Deegan's eyes off of him. "Time's ticking, _Superman."_

Oliver watched as Deegan flew off to save the children, as he and Barry ran off in the opposite direction, using the buildings as cover to escape Deegan, Diaz, and Zoom who were now members of law enforcement.

Oliver eventually found a manhole and directed Barry into it. They sat in the darkness for a while to let things cool off before they moved out. Oliver shimmied his way next to his friend so that their shoulders were touching. "You alright? When you saw Zoom…"

It was silent for a few beats until he heard Barry's croaky voice. "He killed my dad, Ollie. He paraded me around the streets like a rag-doll. How do you do it? You were able to look at Malcolm Merlyn and Chase without breaking down. After everything they did to you?"

"It's just something you have to do. Keep one foot in front of the other. And try not to look back. There were so many times that I wanted to kill Merlyn or Chase but couldn't because of the circumstances. You just have to endure, Barry." Oliver sighed. "It's not fair, it's just the way it is."

"How about you?" Barry asked. "I saw the immediate regret when you put those kids in danger. You imagined one of them to be Liv, after the fact, didn't you?"

Oliver felt his eyes sting and blinked away the tears. "Yes." He answered softly. "I couldn't help but imagine if someone did it to Liv, or what if Liv was older, and that she was down there."

"She may develop her cry in that case. High-stress situations can do that. She would protect herself."

Oliver sent a sad smile in his friend's direction. "It's not exactly something I was thinking about. I know she has the gene, but what if it never activates and she gets killed? It's better to assume that it remains dormant than to rely on chance. I can't lose her, Barry."

They then both silently agreed to climb the ladder to find out how much Deegan had changed and established a plan to reverse it.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Deegan walked into his base, which was once STAR Labs, and saw everyone, one of his loyal subjects, clapping towards him, congratulating him on saving the children. And yet, he felt fury bubbling up. He had let Queen and Allen outfox him.

He picked up the desk with computers and threw it to the ground in a large crash. "I let the bastards escape!" he bellowed at them. This wasn't a victory. Queen and Allen would find a way to reverse everything and deprive him of this world he created just to spite the man that had given him this gift.

The man next to the woman with silver-white hair said, "I have no doubt that you will apprehend them in due time, sir."

Deegan snorted. He had two of his allies, including the one held in their little prison. Before he could speak to Grant or Snow, alarms buzzed. Grant clenched his fist and four kryptonite blades protruded out of his sable suit. "I will deal with her."

"That won't be necessary." He said looking between Snow, and Grant. Feeling slightly woozy at the green blades." I will talk to our _guest."_

He walked past his people, as they stood at attention. He had scrambled everyone's destiny. No one was what they once were. And it had to remain that way. He was going to meet with the woman who likes the man he had modeled himself after was an anomaly, someone who didn't have a destiny in this world. Beyond fighting with the Dominators and Nazis from another dimension.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver and Barry slowly made their way up to Cisco's apartment, in an attempt to get him to help them reverse this bizarro-world that Deegan had concocted. They opened the door to find themselves standing on a strange metal disc, floating in the middle of space, from the looks of it.

Oliver looked around before his eyes narrowed on The Monitor. The true source of their current predicament. "What are we doing here?"

"You managed to outwit a man that dwarfs the likes of a mere human, or a human blessed with speed."

"What do you want from us!?" Oliver growled. He was getting sick of these games. These trials. First, his daughter wouldn't even recognize him, and he had to convince his wife who he really was. Now, he had no idea where his family was, or if they were safe. His wife, daughter, and sister could be living in the Glades in cardboard boxes if they were not captured or tortured by Deegan.

"Oliver Queen." The Monitor said calmly. " A man who hardens his heart to all those around him except a select few. A man who portrays himself as a harder man than what he truly is."The Monitor said. "Do you truly want to die?"

Oliver continued to glare at the man, wishing that he had his bow in his hand, and a quiver full of arrows on his back. "No." The Monitor, said as if reading Oliver's mind. "You wish to spend the rest of your life quietly with your wife, your sister, your daughter and any future children you and Dinah Lance may have. And yet, you are willing to give all that up to save this world. The Multiverse?"

Oliver ignored the look that Barry was giving him, as he continued to glare at the man before him. "Good. Perhaps this world is not as doomed as I feared."

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Barry turned to look at Oliver as they appeared just outside Cisco's apartment. He always knew that Oliver was willing to risk his life for the good fight, but he would have thought that it would have cooled when he married and had a child with Laurel.

"Ollie, about what he said."

"He doesn't know everything, Barry. I'm willing to give my life to ensure that my friends, and my family. Laurel, Thea, and Liv are able to live. I will do anything to keep Liv safe. Even if that means that I will never get to see her grow up, and become a beautiful young and talented woman, like her mother."

"Just, don't take everything he says at face value, Ollie."

Oliver sighed, and looked at his friend, "We need to find Cisco. If Diaz and Zolomon are the good guys…"

"Then some of our friends must be the bad guys."

"Where exactly do the criminals of Central City congregate?"

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver looked around the seedy-looking club, to see faces of men and women he didn't know. It reminded him back when he and Tommy would bar-crawl throughout the city, albeit he didn't spend much time in The Glades.

He and Barry shuffled through the club, filled with criminals. He assumed that like he and Barry, some of these men and women may have rubbed Deegan the wrong way in some form, and as a result of his brush with literal godhood, made them criminals, and or pariahs of this new world.

Eventually, after shoving past several men with the tattoo of The Hanoi Ten. After making it to the bar, and waiting for the bartender, he looked around to see a group of Irish Mobsters, and the man playing pool, was a member of the Yakuza, considering that he was missing the upper part of his small finger.

"What do you want?" Asked a gruff familiar voice.

Oliver noticed Barry's back become straighter and noticed that they were talking to Mick Rory. "Mick, it's us," Barry said, looking relieved.

"I know who you are. Boss was pissed off that you didn't give him his cut." He said not looking up from cleaning a mug. "Can't believe that I vouched for you two bastards."

Barry's eyes widened as he looked to Oliver, giving him a silent plea for help. Oliver leaned on the counter slightly to look at their ally, "We were going to talk to him about it. Is he in?"

"Ramon is where he always is at this time of night," Mick growled, at them gesturing his head towards the large table in the back, that had three women sitting in the booth, two blondes, and a brunette. Oliver and Barry inched their way towards Cisco, to see him counting money next to Laurel, Thea, and Patty.

Oliver watched as his sister and his wife sat there looking like ornaments from Cisco's collection. He had been holding onto the wish that the three of his girls were back in Star, even if they were in some seedy apartment in the Glades, they would be together and safe. He never expected his wife and sister to Cisco's groupies. It was a slap in the face by Deegan.

Oliver clenched his fists and stood next to Barry, who couldn't keep his eyes off Patty. " We need to talk," Oliver said in a tone that brokered no arguments.

Cisco flicked his hand lazily towards Thea, "Book an appointment with my lovely assistant." He said before going back to counting the stacks of Franklins. He then patted his sister's leg. "You should be able to be seen at go screw yourself, O'clock."

"Cisco, man. We really need your help." Barry said sincerely. Though it seemed that his pleas to his friend fell upon deaf ears.

He clicked his fingers, and the three women stood up. Each woman wore a necklace, Laurel's was a black colored bird, Thea's a red arrowhead, and Patty had a thunderbolt. "First, you are late paying me my cut. Second, you demand to see me, third you refer to me, not by my surname, but with a nickname. "Perhaps my girls should teach you a lesson? I call them Ramon's Angels."

Barry looked between the women and Ollie. "How are we going to do this?"

Oliver took a step forward. As much as he loved Laurel and his baby sister, right now, these women were not his family. They might as well be wearing their faces, and imitating their voices. Thea wasn't the same girl that followed him around when he was a boy or the woman that helped Laurel raise his daughter while he was in prison. And the Laurel in front of him, despite her looking the same, wasn't the same woman that he fell in love with, the woman that had fought for Starling while he was playing on the mend after his fight with Ra's.

He prayed he was right, as he took another step in front of Laurel and Thea. Only to be thrown, alongside Barry, backwards, over the railing, and through the tables and chairs.

_SCREEEEEEEEEEE_

Oliver grunted as he slowly found his way to his feet, his ears ringing. The next thing he knew, he and Barry had two guns pointed at him. Patty and Thea had their pistols aimed at their heads, while Laurel slowly moved from Cisco to join her team.

"Stop!" Cisco commanded.

The women lowered their guns, not that they would need them. Oliver doubted he or Barry could move towards them without being thrown back by Laurel's cry again.

"What is your issue, don't mess up the floor with their blood. Take it outside, and make it slow. Hurt the little scrawny one, before you do it to the larger one."

Laurel, Thea, and Patty started to drag them out, and as they did, Oliver tried to look into Laurel's green eyes. Only she kept moving her line of sight away from his face. Maybe what the Other Flash said was right. He and Laurel had a bond that extended beyond the multiverse. Earth-X notwithstanding, as she and Roy had been the leaders of the Resistance.

"You should have paid him, Ollie. I'll tell Liv that Detective Darhk killed you." She whispered, lowly, that he almost missed it from the sound of the crowd. "You know what will happen if I don't kill you and Barry."

He didn't, but Oliver was sure he could imagine what threats were made to their daughter's life. Laurel was making a similar decision to what his own mother had made with Malcolm. He had to reverse it.

"I know your brother, Dante!" Barry called out, over Patty's shoulder, breaking him and Laurel from their small conversation.

"Hold up," Cisco said, snapping his fingers. "How do you know Dante?"

"Long story," Barry said. "But he would want you to hear our proposal."

"Which is?"

"A way to defeat Superman," Oliver said.

"Very well," Cisco said, snapping his fingers. "Step into my office."Oliver followed Cisco and Barry into the back office, he could just make out Mick Rory grumbling about not cleaning up the mess of broken furniture. And that he needed a drink.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Cisco reclined himself on his throne-like chair. "You have the information I want to kill Superman, so you better start talking before I get my girls to finish what they started. Or… Considering the way that you both looked at the three women, I will have them killed slowly before I have someone else kill you. It all depends on what you say and do in the next few seconds, gentlemen."

Barry stood there slack-jawed, apart from Reverb, he hadn't seen a version as callous as his friend. The fact that he was willing to kill his wife, along with Laurel and Thea Queen, all to punish them for wasting his time. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Oliver's muscles tense, his friend looked like he was about to pummel Cisco into the expensive marble desk.

"First things first, can you vibe?"

Cisco slammed his fist into the desk, pulled his crystal decanter, and poured himself a dram of whiskey. "Can I what?"

Barry continued, though Oliver rolled his eyes. "Can you vibe, see things in the future, or open portals, or breaches?"

His friend before reality had shifted again narrowed his eyes and pulled out a gold plated pistol. "You two cops, or something?"

"No," Oliver replied immediately.

Cisco didn't seem reassured and pulled open a small bust of the Nordic god, Loki. Cisco pressed a button and Oliver and Barry watched as the windows became frosted. "Well, since you both can't communicate outside of this room." He pointed at his jeweled crystal decanter. "I located a portion of the stolen Nazi plunder of the Amber Room of Catherine The Great." Cisco then gestured to a painting. "The painting of St. George and the dragon, that went missing almost a year ago from the National Art Gallery." He finally pulled out his pistol again. "And the gold on this beauty was from Marc Antony and Cleopatra's tomb. Only two people knew where the tomb is, and one of them is dead."

Barry gulped. His friend had become a world-class thief with his powers. "That's… Impressive, man. Really."

"Not really, but that's not why you came in here. Tell me more about how I can stop the alien?"

The glint in Cisco's eye showed the curiosity and thirst for knowledge his best friend always had. "We will come back to that, but before we get there, I will teach you how to visit different Earths."

Oliver nodded, "Consider it a down payment."

"You have my undivided attention, boys."

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

All Kara could do was sit and wait. And sit and wait some more. She could hear her sister's doppelgänger making her rounds. Kara had realized that while her powers were somehow dampened by the cell she was in, it hadn't prevented her keen sense of hearing and X-ray vision.

It was a strange sense of normalcy during her tenure as a prisoner to John Deegan. The man who had donned her family's crest and changed himself to imitate her cousin. He insulted not just her, and her family, but every person from her planet.

Kara watched as Alex turned on her heels to speak to Caitlin Snow, by the sound of things. She heard Caitlin tell her sister's doppelgänger to leave, and that some man named Ted would watch the CCTV, and that he had his kryptonite claws if she got too rebellious.

Kara shivered at the thought of being near the green rock, let alone being scratched or impaled by it. It was bad enough when she had found out that Oliver had somehow acquired a kryptonite arrowhead.

Kara bumped her head against the wall of her cell several times in boredom and frustration. How the hell was she supposed to get out of this cell and help Oliver, Barry, and Laurel, along with the rest of Earth One's heroes if she couldn't do something as easy and relatively simple as escaping a cell?

She wished that J'onn was there to help her. He could have escaped. So could she, even if her powers didn't work. She had to have hope, just as Cat Grant had given her in the first year she donned her red cape and family crest, following in her baby cousin's footsteps. She would have to find another way. Maybe it would be through her family, even if it wasn't the same sister she had grown up with. She still had to have the same core person inside of her, just like her sister back home.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver, Barry, and Cisco had found themselves not in Star City, Central, or in National City, instead of judging by the view outside, they were in Salem, by the looks of it. Oliver's eyes then noticed a lot of ancient treasures. Cisco inched towards a golden ankh before they moved, but they were frozen in place, unable to speak.

A metallic voice spoke to Oliver, although it was in his mind, and not from the world around him.

" _My name is Doctor Fate. You have come to me on the eve of darkness falls. Oliver Queen, a crisis looms. I could not save you and Dinah Lance from my world, but I can try to save you and your family. Do not trust everything you hear. Your fate is not as set as some would have you believe. I cannot save you from the crisis that is looming. Take heart that you and your allies will fight valiantly, and despite the losses you will face, you will overcome them. I'm sorry for your loss. They will fall and be remembered and revered as the best humanity can offer. They will then arise to become something more."_

" _How do you know this?"_ Oliver asked the voice inside his head.

" _The Lords of Order see everything, Oliver Queen. Big or Small. Earth One to Earth-X The Lords of Order can see. We will not see each other again."_

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver dropped out of the breach that was golden-white with an ancient Egyptian hieroglyph. and felt his stomach start to curl inwards uncomfortably, he thought he was about to vomit. Taking breaches to seventeen different Earths. Including one where they had met a man wearing a gold helmet, who told him telepathically that his fate was not as sealed as some try to make it seem.

They dropped into some sort of large igloo type of structure to see Clark, Kara's cousin, it wasn't Cisco's breach but a golden one with an ancient Egyptian symbol. "You're back!" The man said with a sincere sort of happiness that he had associated with Kara. Perhaps it was a familial trait. "I take it that you have fixed your freaky Friday problem?"

"What?" Barry asked. "Oh that, yeah it's back to normal, but something else happened."

All eyes turned to Cisco, who looked as if he were casing the large ice structure for some plunder. Oliver noticed that the Kryptonian's eyes became soft, and almost on the verge of tears. "Kara?" He asked, looking at Cisco.

Oliver shook his head. "That's not your cousin, and right now…" How could he tell the man in front of him that his cousin may have been completely wiped from existence, or had her whole destiny erased and rewritten, and wasn't the same woman that had left with them?

If he was in Clark's place he would be tempted to kill him and Barry for not protecting the last of his family. After all, it was their responsibility as a team to look after one another. He had failed Kara, Laurel, Thea, Roy, and Liv, along with everyone else.

Cisco snorted. "You really expect me to believe that this punk is Superman?" He then pulled out his gold-plated pistol. "One way to find out, I suppose. He cocked his gun. "A magazine with nice bullets that are more reliable to kill you than lead."

In the blink of an eye, Clarke took the gun from Cisco and threw it across the ice building. "That will not be necessary." He then looked between Oliver and Barry. "Where is my cousin? _We_ are going to get her back. And fix whatever shenanigans that are happening on your Earth. "

Oliver listened while Barry described what had happened on their earth, how the man had rewritten reality, and that Kara was missing.

"So you need the Book of Destiny to return things back to how it was?" Superman asked.

"Yes."

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Kara's ears were still ringing after her sister's doppelganger had used a device that mimicked a high-frequency sound. When Alex had used it, she thought her head was going to explode. She embraced the woman as she let her out of the confines of the very small cell.

"Thank you, Alex."

"Thank you for giving me the push. You gave me hope."

Kara rushed out following the various corridors before coming into the cortex of STAR Labs. And face to face with the man who was wearing Clark's face. He gave her a condescending smirk, "I told you the consequences of what would happen if you tried to escape."

His eyes glowed a deep red but stopped as soon a blue-white breach opened between them, and Oliver, Barry, Cisco, and Clark jumped out. She smiled fondly at her cousin and friends.

Clarke looked at Deegan with a polite smile. "Nice suit. A bit too dark for my tastes." Kal-El then cleared his throat and stood straight. "I think it's time for you and me to have a private consultation, Doctor." Her cousin then grabbed the man by the scruff of the neck and took off like a rocket through the ceiling of the labs, and into the skies.

She then watched as a large middle-aged man pulled his cowl over his silver-gray hair, his cowl resembling something akin to a black panther. He extended the retractable claws on his suit, revealing his kryptonite claws.

Oliver dived in front of the man, shoving both him and Caitlin Snow into the elevator, and kicked the buttons on the inside of the elevator with his boot, closing the doors behind the three of them. Though not before he called out for them to find the Book of Destiny.

Barry turned towards them, apparently, Cisco had disappeared during the fight, and others had fled. "Where would Dee-Superman hide his valuable items?"

Alex turned to her, to see if it was a good idea to trust the man. Kara nodded. "You can trust him."

"He keeps his valuables in the Fortress of Solitude. No one but him is allowed there."

"Show me," Kara said.

"I hope that it's not as cold as the last one I just visited," Barry grumbled as he followed the pair of them through the corridors, before stopping at a wall. Kara punched through it, only to hear Barry mention something called a time-vault.

Kara moved in to open the book. As she did, she saw everything and nothing at the same time, as if it were a bright light that she couldn't see past. It felt like her entire body had run a marathon. She panted as she managed to slam the tomb shut. "I can't do it… I don't know how he managed to do it, Barry."

"Clark said he has had experiences with similar books, maybe he can do it?" Barry suggested. With a small nod, Kara dashed out of the Labs to find her cousin, only he could rewrite reality."

Kara eventually found him outside and he was about to be thrown into a car before she threw the doctor into the air. She handed the tomb to her cousin, pleading with him to rewrite reality. She watched as Clark opened the large book, and as everything began to change, the house of El symbols were removed and replaced with the STAR Labs logo, and she is now back in her suit.

Eventually, Oliver and Barry walked out wearing their proper suits and equipment. After expressing awe, Oliver was grabbed by Deegan who had sped behind him, holding her friend in a headlock, ready to snap his neck. Kara, on instinct, shot her lasers from her eyes, only for Deegan to do the same.

She then remembered how the sonic sound in prison had almost killed her, and how Siobhan Smythe had almost done the same thing. "Find Laurel. We need her to cry!"

Deegan snorted, "You don't need to find someone to cry for me, you all will soon enough."

"Oh, you don't want to hear her cry, Deegan."

In the blink of an eye, Kara watched as The Flash shoved Oliver out of the man's grip, a split-second before Black Canary screamed.

_SCREEEEEEEE_

Kara watched as Laurel used her canary cry, Deegan dropped to his knees, clutching his ears before he finally dropped to the ground and began writing. Kara could just make out some blood dripping out of his ear. Laurel didn't stop until Clark had finished making everything return to normal.

Laurel finally stopped screaming her sonic cry, and they noticed that Deegan had passed out, and no longer looked quite human. The book was then burned to cinders by Clark.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

After Kara and her cousin left, she, Ollie, and Barry found themselves in The Monitor's Realm. Oliver took a protective step in front of her. "What do you want?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"I have come to congratulate you. Earth One's mightiest heroes had managed to pass my tests. Your efforts will be tested for when we next meet a crisis will be on your doorstep that will dwarf any and all threats you have ever faced. I only hope that The Fastest Man Alive, The Canary of Starling City, and The Emerald Archer survive, as unlikely as that may be. Enjoy what you have last. For it may be your last." The Monitor said, looking squarely at her and Oliver.

Laurel reached out to hold Oliver's hand and together they grounded themselves. She couldn't believe what she was hearing though. She and Oliver were going to die to save the entire multiverse but leave their daughter an orphan. Her chest felt heavy from the guilt. Just as she and Liv got Ollie back, they were going to be separated again and didn't know where or when.

Laurel exhaled, seeing Barry look pale as he looked at them, likely realizing that his honorary niece was destined to be an orphan.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Barry found himself in the time-vault. The newspaper mentioned that The Flash was missing from Crisis. Perhaps, the monitor had gotten it wrong, that he, Barry was the one to perish, or he, Laurel and Oliver were going to die. If The Monitor was right, and Oliver was going to be killed…. He couldn't let Olivia grow up without one of her parents.

The future wasn't set in stone. And the voice in his head when he was on Earth-23 had told him that he would know the right decision when the time came. And that history world remembers him fondly, and that he had known that since he first set his eye on the newspaper.

A tear escaped his eye as he left the time-vault and headed home to find Patty. And wondered what to tell her, about what the future may or may not hold. He knew in his heart that his days were potentially numbered if the metallic was right, and the Monitor was wrong.

::-:-:-::-:-:-::

Oliver and Laurel returned home. Instead of opting for one of the meals he had made when he returned home from prison and froze, he chose to make his family chicken and spinach lasagna and handed Laurel a glass of sparkling grape juice. Oliver, after setting the meal on the table kissed his daughter's head and then kissed his wife.

"Opening the sparkling grape juice, what's the occasion for the bubbly?"

"Between my Pretty Bird saving my life, believing in me, and the fact that we managed to beat those warped trials. I just wanted to celebrate with my two special girls."

Laurel's green eyes showed how touched she was as she took a sip of her drink. "Livvy, say thank you to Daddy for making us this special meal."

Instead of speaking, the little girl moved her plate next to her father's and climbed up on his lap. She snuggled into his chest. "Thank you, Daddy."

He and Laurel both knew that these may be the final days, weeks, months, or years of them being a family until the crisis showed up. But they had reached a silent agreement to not speak of it. Apart from when he had told her about what Doctor Fate had told him. They would ignore the sword of Damocles over their head's the best they could and spend more time as a family to ensure that their daughter would at least have fond memories of her parents in case the worst should happen.

"Anything for my girls." He whispered into her blonde hair as he felt Laurel lean against his shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't have any plans to make a Crisis fic following the events in this fic.


End file.
